Feb. 18.—John B. Gough, the famous temperance orator, died in Philadelphia. He was attacked by apoplexy Monday, February 15, while lecturing on “Peculiar People,” in Philadelphia. When he arose to address the crowded gathering he was feeling well, and for forty minutes he spoke with his usual fire and eloquence. Then suddenly his head dropped upon his chest, and he fell prostrate to the floor.
Feb. 19.—Edward Learned, one of the most prominent citizens of Berkshire county, died at his home, in Pittsfield, Mass., of disease of the heart. He was sixty-six years old, and a native of Watervliet. He was a Representative to the Legislature in 1857, and a Senator in 1873 and 1874.
Feb. 25.—Death of John Smith, a well-known manufacturer of Andover, Mass. He was nearly ninety years of age, and for years maintained a personal interest in the town, in which place he first settled on arriving in this country from Scotland. His detestation of the pro-slavery preaching of the day led him, with others, to form the Free Christian Church in 1846. He was also a generous supporter of educational interests, and large sums went from his hand to the infant colleges of the West, as well as to older institutions.
Feb. 28.—Mary Jane Welles, widow of the Hon. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy under Presidents Lincoln and Johnson, died at her residence in Hartford, Conn., aged 69 years. She was a daughter of Elias W. Hale, who graduated at Yale College in 1795, and subsequently was one of the original settlers of Lewistown, Penn. She married Mr. Welles in 1835.
March 6.—The Rev. Henry Martyn Grout, D.D., pastor of the Trinitarian Congregational Church in Concord, Mass., died in Boston after a brief sickness. He was born in Newfane, Vt., May 14, 1831. He entered Williams College in 1850, and was graduated in 1854. Dr. Grout entered the ministry in September, 1858, when he was ordained and installed as pastor of the Orthodox Church in Putney, Vt. After preaching there, at West Rutland, Vt., and Springfield, Mass., he moved to Boston, and became a member of the editorial staff of the Congregationalist, which position he filled with great credit to himself and the paper during Dr. Dexter’s absence abroad. He had occupied the pulpit of the church in Concord since 1872.